On the weekend of the 7th of November, Sophia and I, as well as a few friends from Uljin, took a planned trip down south to Busan. We had a thrilling lunch date on Saturday, with some sharp toothed sharks and some wet suits with our names on them.
Luckily for us it was a completely rained out weekend, so we weren't to bummed that we were missing the prime time Fall(Autumn) colors that were now covering every mountain and country side. As I am sure you are aware this can be a big deal for me and my passion for landscape photography. Anyway we were shark diving, which sounds a whole lot more brave and interesting.
Before we got into the tank, I was not really expecting to much out of this experience, but the chance to say I have been in a small enclosure with Sharks. However, this was a lot more than I was expecting. Being in the water with these strong, razor toothed giants gave me a sense of my exisistence and how small I really am. I felt almost humbled to share the water with them and be in such close proximity. It was at times a little hair raising and there was one moment I was really uncertain of the sharks intentions with me, setting me off to what I'm sure looked like a pretty damn good limbo, probably the lowest iv ever gone before falling to my knees to avoid the shark swimming straight at me. It just didn't bother that I was between it and where it was going. These sharks were graceful and powerful, they did not seem to mind that we were in their tank. They seemed a little curious and would sneak up from behind you or just out of sight of your peripherals. Making the experience even more exciting of course.
The main sharks in the tank are Sand Tiger Sharks and are known back home in South Africa by the common term of 'Raggies'. If you are familiar with a raggie then you know what beautiful smiles they have, great for that candid moment. There were also a few smaller black tip reef sharks in the tank, though they were shy of us and the cameras.
The dive lasted about 45min and was one of the strangest dives we have done so far. Without our fins we were walking along the bottom, all weighted down with extra weight on our weightbelts and in our pockets, to ensure we would not float to the top and become aluring to the sharks ;) Really it was also to just make it more comfortable to stay down and assist with walking on the bottom. This was the strange feeling associated with this dive, we felt like astronaughts on the moon, it was almost like being in a vaccuum, a room without gravity, even with all that weight added.
Anyway, here we were, all of astronaughts wearing scuba gear and exploring the bottom of a tank for shark teeth while being investigated by these beautiful sharks who had lost their teeth. Apparently two a day on average. It was a most outlandish experience and worth every penny and as a bonus you get to take some shark teeth as souvegnirs, watch out, they sharp as hell.
If you ever get the chance we would highly reccommend taking up this challenge and diving with some sharks in Busan. Our next step from here will be to dive with them in the open ocean if we can.
Thanks to Carel Aucamp from Aquatic Frontier for organising the dive at the Aquarium. If you want to get in contact with him, find him on Facebook.